Hi,

I am working on a port for the Lenovo Tab M8 HD, and I would like to get some feed back.

Working: Wifi, GPS, sensors, back light, display rotation, ADB, ssh

More testing needed: Bluetooth (can connect to devices), audio (YouTube videos play fine), camera (can take photos with both cameras)

Not tested yet: waydroid, libertine, vpn

Not working: tap to wake

The port is for the TB-8505F model only. Before installing make sure that you can reinstall Android in case something goes wrong. The easiest way is to use the Lenovo Rescue and Smart Assistant, however that tool is only available on Windows.

To install:

• Download latest artifacts.zip from https://gitlab.com/redstar-team/ubports/lenovo-tab-m8/lenovo-tab-m8/-/artifacts, and unpack it
• Unlock bootloader, and enter fastboot mode
• Flash the downloaded files:

fastboot flash boot boot.img
fastboot flash system ubuntu.img
fastboot -w

• Restart into Ubuntu Touch

fastboot reboot

There is no recovery image yet, same with the dtbo image. Detailed install instructions are on my TODO list.

Have fun!
Kai

Greetings from Toronto, ON, Canada!

My name is Kai, and I am a German living and working in Toronto as software developer.

I came across Ubuntu Touch searching for alternative mobile operating systems. I got interested, but I do not own a supported device, so I am currently working on a new port.

Kai

@Lesharoturbo No. I am still working on this port. I think to be able to receive OTA the port must be an official commuinty port. For that I still have to fix some bugs.

@Lesharoturbo No idea. The artefacts are build with Focal, and I never noted missing letters. However, when building for Noble I see a couple of missing characters. I do not have EGL fully working, this could be the cause.

Latest build fixes the vertical black lines which can be seen sometimes.

Hi Tim,

How much experience do you have? If this is your first time porting to a device, then I would suggest to begin using halium-13 first. I work on my first port (another Lenovo tablet), too, and it took me a long time to just get the kernel booting. The Andorid version begins to matter when the device boots so far that you can ssh into it. At that point you can worry about integrating halium 14.

On the other hand, if you are experienced with porting then follow the advice to ask on the telegram channel how to base your port on halium 14 from the beginning.

Kai

One way to debug this is to see what ssh is doing:

GIT_SSH_COMMAND="ssh -v" git clone git@gitlab.com:MyUserName/docs.ubports.com.git

@MrT10001 I added you as developer to the repository. Feel free to change the readme.

@Moem My user was actually banned. But looks like an admin un-banned it. And yeah, it's really my name.

@floem7 said in Unlock Bootloader – How To Unlock?:

Second question, how can I backup my original android 11 in case I've screw something?

No recommendation for a backup. You can use the Rescue and Smart Assistent from Lenovo (RSA) to reinstall latest stock Android. Sadly, this tool is only available on Windows.
A good strategy is to use RSA to download the firmware file, and save that file. The path is shown in the upper right corner of the UI while the file is downloaded. Either you are fast enough and you can copy the .zip file, or you need to zip the unzip directory yourself. This firmware file contains all the partition images of the devices, and you can flash them via fastboot to restore Android.

Kai

@harmhero No, the M8 FHD is a different device. It has a different CPU, a different LCD, and more RAM. I actually own a M8 FHD device, and I like to support that device, too. However, I am currently busy with writing another book, so most likely this will not happen before late summer.

Kai

@linhmieu2 Just a shot in the dark: you only have a handful of udev rules, this seems incomplete. E.g. in my port: https://gitlab.com/redstar-team/ubports/lenovo-tab-m8/lenovo-tab-m8/-/blob/halium-10-4.9/overlay/system/etc/udev/rules.d/70-tabm8.rules?ref_type=heads

Kai

@tigerfoot The TB-8505X has the 4G interface, which is missing in the current kernel. Other than that it should work fine. Not sure if this fits your use case...
I can provide a boot image with a kernel having the additional driver compiled in, but mot likely would need your help with debugging the ofono configuration (in case you are interested in helping to get 4G working).

sd cards works, surfing via wifi works too. IMHO it feels faster than Android, but do not expect wonders.

@linhmieu2 You need to determine the VNDK level of your Android firmware, e.g. with adb shell getprop | grep vndk or using the Treble info app. Use that number to look up the corresponding Android version, e.g. at API levels. For example, if the VNDK version is 34, then you need to put deviceinfo_halium_version="14" in your deviceinfo file.
The VNDK level is the API version level, and this it what counts for halium. Note that the version derived in this way may not correspond the Android version your device displays. E.g. I have a OnePlus 11 running Android 15, but the VNDK version is still 33, which corresponds to Android 13. For this device, I need to use 13 as the halium version.
You may also want to put the number as ApiLevel into the /etc/gbinder.conf file in your system overlay.

There is no "Android 12 kernel". I think it would be better if you post the concrete problems you encounter. The telegram group for porters is also a good place to ask or search for answers.

Kai

@floem7 said in Unlock Bootloader – How To Unlock?:

Second question, how can I backup my original android 11 in case I've screw something?

No recommendation for a backup. You can use the Rescue and Smart Assistent from Lenovo (RSA) to reinstall latest stock Android. Sadly, this tool is only available on Windows.
A good strategy is to use RSA to download the firmware file, and save that file. The path is shown in the upper right corner of the UI while the file is downloaded. Either you are fast enough and you can copy the .zip file, or you need to zip the unzip directory yourself. This firmware file contains all the partition images of the devices, and you can flash them via fastboot to restore Android.

Kai

@floem7 said in Unlock Bootloader – How To Unlock?:

However, I have no clarity on unlocking bootloader. The page linked above doesn't provide/link software for linux. I've borrowed windows machine to use dedicated USB-drivers but still the linked file is not exe but some dlls.

For Linux, you can download the platform tools from Google. Most likely, you need to run the tools as root because of missing udev rules. Many distributions provide these tools, e.g. on latest Ubuntu you can install adb and fastboot with sudo apt install adb fastboot. This will also update the udev rules. A good approach is to install the tools from the distribution, and the latest tools from Google, and make sure that the Google version comes first in the search path.

No USB drivers etc. are needed, and no need to download binaries from random websites.

Kai

Latest build fixes the vertical black lines which can be seen sometimes.

Updates since my last post:

• I disabled more useless kernel features
• I had to add some code to keep the pstore feature working
• The WLAN and the Bluetooth driver are now compiled into the kernel
• The artifacts.zip now contains a vbmeta.img file to simplify the installation

The repo now includes a script to disable the ugly "Orange State" warning. customizelk.py patches the lk.img from the stock ROM to just return from the function which displays the message. This also avoids the additional 5sec wait time. Please note that this is purely cosmetic.

Have fun,
Kai

@bellagon Thanks for trying. Yes, the missing characters are annoying. I still have not found a solution for it.

@abdalnablse10 Thanks for trying. The problem with offline charging seems to be a regression, may be I disabled too much.

The vertical black lines feel like a "off by 1" error in the graphic pipeline. Not sure if I can do something about that.